Bert Assirati, one of history’s greatest
strength athletes and wrestlers died of
cancer of the bladder on August 31, 1990
at eight o’clock in the evening. So passed a
unique man, perhaps the greatest example of the
old-time strongman/mat artists of this century.
I knew Bert for more than 50 years. He
taught me to wrestle the hard way, breaking my
nose in the process. Bert was also a fine tumbler
and hand balancer, and one of the top
professional wrestlers in the game. Standing
about 5’7” and weighing as much as 250 pounds,
Bert could turn a back flip with ease. In fact, it
was his trademark after a match—which he
always won—to do a back flip.
I first met Bert at the gym attached to the old
Boxing and Wrestling arena—the “Ring”—in the
Blackfriars Road in London, England. At that
time Bert’s arms measured a full 18 inches, and
this was when 16 was considered big. It was in
the early thirties, when El Said Noseir, the
Egyptian heavyweight, held sway with a world
record clean and jerk of 363, a weight Bert was
said to have exceeced. At a time when the British
record in the straight arm pullover was held by
Alan P. Mead at 140 pounds, Bert did a straight
arm pullover of 200 with ease. He could curl 200
pounds and squat for reps with 550 when a 400
pound squat was regarded as extraordinary. He
also did a single-legged squat with 200 pounds
When he saw I needed extra bodyweight to
be able to wrestle more successfully, he sent me
to his cousin, Joe Assirati, under whose tutelage I
soon gained from 165 to 190. My meeting with
Joe was a happy one for, in addition to gaining a
teacher, I gained a lifelong friend and brother.
Bert was sui generis—one of a kind—and we
won’t see his like again.
Goodbye, Bert.
[Ed. note: Goodbye, Charles.]